THE renovation of a town centre shop that has stood derelict for almost three years is to start this month....

THE renovation of a town centre shop that has stood derelict for almost three years is to start this month.

Brinklow-based developer Paul McDonnell plans to spend about #80,000 transforming the burnt-out Virtually Games store in Church Street, Rugby, with the help of a borough council shop-front improvement grant.

The plans, which were given the go-ahead by councillors before Christmas, include a new ground-floor shop and the conversion of the first, second and third floors into two flats.

Mr McDonnell, a retained fireman, who lives at Cottage Farm, Heath Lane, helped fight the flames which swept through the building after arsonists struck in February 1999. It has remained a boarded up ever since.

He said: ?It?s been a slow process getting planning permission because the shop is in a conservation area and these things take time.

?But hopefully we?ll be in there by the end of the month. It will take a few months to get sorted because it needs extensive work.

?It?s just a shell at the moment so it needs new floors and a new roof. The pigeons are a problem because they seem to have taken over.? He said a butcher had already expressed an in interest in moving in to the retail part of the building.

Two neighbouring shops were also damaged when fire swept through the computer and software store in 1999.

The exact cause of the blaze remains a mystery but arson was suspected since it followed an attack on the former Neptune chip shop just yards away some months before.